ABC of ballet: mime

Mime

Mime: The use of gesture to convey narrative meaning. Classical ballet has a distinct language of mime where specific gestures convey precise meanings such as love, marriage, king, queen, etc. Highly stylized mime sequences are often used to spell out particular moments in the story, and to offer a vital change of pace between set pieces. Early theatre also used a complex language of mime, and early audiences would have been much more familiar with this silent language than today’s ballet goers.

ABC of ballet: One ofa series of posts explaining useful ballet terms.